


Lilies I Rule

by LadyFeste



Category: The Queen's Thief - Megan Whalen Turner
Genre: Bad Poetry, F/M, Poetry, character poetry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-05-15
Updated: 2017-01-11
Packaged: 2018-01-24 21:04:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 2,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1617044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyFeste/pseuds/LadyFeste
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A series of character poetry, going back and forth from Gen and Irene, outlining their relationship from The Thief to A Conspiracy of Kings. Not great poetry, I'm warning you now.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Moonlight

**Author's Note:**

> Timeline: Young Eugenides sees Princess Irene for the first time

Two images come to him that night

One: a twirling skirt  
And the widest smile  
And the brightest laughter  
He has never seen ebony  
And lavender look so   
Happy to be pressed  
Together as when he saw  
Her hair flaring around   
The neckline of her dress

Two: the glint of salt  
Water on flower petals  
As she fell onto a marble bench  
He never heard anyone   
Sob so quietly   
As though her life depended on it  
And he wonders what a  
Shadow has to cry about

The scenes pass  
And all he remembers  
Is something shifting in a garden  
Moving in and out  
Of splashes of moonlight  
And a feeling of joy and sorrow  
Where there should be nothing


	2. Contrary

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Timeline: Eddis' Coronation

One queen has skin like midnight  
And a heart like dawn

The other has skin like morning  
And a heart like dusk

One grows in love and loyalty  
The other in neglect and hate

One is handed a crown by a dead man  
The other tears hers from the hand of a dead man

One is named for beauty, the other for peace  
They have their counterpart’s namesakes

They are opposites in more ways than this  
And yet, they are the same

(a grubby cousin runs by while Peace  
whispers unwanted advice in Beauty’s ear

he looks at her longer than necessary  
as if remembering something from a dream

she’ll remember him specifically, years later,  
but she won’t understand why)


	3. Kindness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Timeline: After their first official meeting in The Thief. May be the last one for today, at least.

More kind.

_More kind._

She is lovelier

Than his mystery maiden

But the lover that keeps

Her from gaining a Thief

Is more _kind._

 

She does not care.

She has never had a use

For any weakness such

As _kindness,_

And she has not

Lost the thief yet.

 

Lost to _kindness._

It does not matter.

What does a queen

Want kindness for?

Kindness does not

Pay taxes or build

A military or ensure

The crops are growing.

 

_More kind._

The words haunt her

For weeks after he

Escapes her

And his eyes follow her

Long after she

Leaves the room.


	4. Moonlight II

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Timeline: the meeting in The Thief, Gen's point of view

Something in him stirs when he sees her

It may be simply that  
he feels the grime of his  
journey more closely   
in her radiant presence  
or perhaps she startled   
him and the fluttering in   
his stomach is nerves or  
perhaps it is simply that  
she is the loveliest woman  
he has ever seen

But none of that would explain  
the sudden desire to see  
her in pale purple  
that vicious smile  
softening in laughter  
those hands poised in a   
dance, a whirl of crushed  
velvet and bare feet on  
dew-washed grass under  
a canopy of orange trees

Moonlight would bring  
out the silver in her eyes  
and the roses in her cheeks  
and something tells him he  
knows this because he has  
seen it all before

(a memory returns to him  
but he dismisses it as a   
dream; the girl he recalls  
wept and woman before  
him is incapable of tears)


	5. Uncontested

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Timeline: post-Thief

next to Hephestia  
she is sloppy  
ugly  
underdressed  
colder than marble  
She does not command  
the respect and   
admiration of the goddess  
she seeks to evoke  
she is a pale copy  
and everything about her  
speaks heresy

but after the shock  
of the goddess wears off  
he remembers her   
as beautiful as the stories said  
more radiant  
more commanding  
more terrifying  
stronger than granite

and next to Hephestia  
she is human   
she is beautiful  
she is queen


	6. Vermin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> guess who started rereading Queen of Attolia
> 
> Timeline: the night of Gen's capture

She can hear him in the walls,  
like a mouse evading  
the trap that is her bedroom,  
the prison that is her castle

The sound of his scurrying haunts her  
she wakes to hear it at night,  
even when it is not there. Four  
times she's been sure, four times

she's felt him, so close she could  
feel his breath upon her face, so  
real she could feel the heat of his  
skin, the laugh in his eyes 

audible and mocking, but  
when she opened her eyes  
she was alone with her fury.  
He will not escape again.


	7. Deity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Timeline: Gen hits the tree

Sure, he'd never prayed before he saw the gods  
walking on the earth, had pledged offerings out   
of mortal spite, had never sincerely believed  
what his ancestor's blood flooding his veins  
had wanted him to believe. 

But he'd thought  
                        hoped

                                                (what a fool he'd been)

                                                he'd  _thought_ that there was something there  
  
that the goddess he'd seen raised and writing plans for him  
                   that the goddess who had so patiently waited while he worked up the nerve to steal from her hand  
                                              that the god he shared a name with  
                                                                      shared a passion with  
                                                                      shared footsteps with  
                                                                      shared a spirit with--

                                  _(the god who'd killed his mother--)_

It was a fall, but not the kind he'd always pictured  
                                                                        imagined  
                                                                                _remembered_  
                                                                                            _dreaded_  
  
He can still feel how Eugenides' hand felt on his  
when he took the GIft, and with His favor  
                                         (safe and terrifying, and cooler than it should have been,  
                                                    less like the fire He'd been consumed by and more like  
                                                                    marble come to life)

he thought he'd taken more that day under the river  
                    (so stupid)  
he thought  
                             (trusting, a child's faith)  
                                                                 there was something  _more_

He had seen them, touched them, walked among them  
he still dreamed them, and prayed with more reverence  
and familiarity than any temple-bound priest  
who'd been born believing

                   he thought  
                                    (he'd dropped his guard)  
he was different than the other worshippers  
                   (how could he think the gods would not cast him aside  
                            when he'd grown boring to them)

He was not Eugenides, after all,  
but a pale copy of the ash-mouthed god.

                                  ( _he is a Fallen Thief, and the hurt of that loss  
                                                                        is greater than the dogs' teeth)_


	8. Quiet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Timeline: The Chop and after

He never made a sound  
and his silence surprised her. 

He had not struck her as   
a quiet man, in anything.

He had made enough noise  
as the dogs tore into him. 

She had felt vindicated before  
she threw him back in the dark.

She had watched the sword drop  
with something like pleasure.

She had conquered her enemies  
before they hurt her, once again.

But now, alone in the night  
she saw his face again. 

She saw the end of the arm  
that would never haunt her more. 

She saw his youth, his fear,  
his in extremis faith.

She felt the eyes of gods upon her,  
gods she knew did not exist. 

He never made a sound and  
the smell of oil heavy in the air. 

She did not have the capacity  
or the luxury for regret.


	9. Deity II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Timeline: The Chop

_My God  
_ _MY GOD  
_ he was not a coward, had never shied from pain  
but _my god_ , _please no  
_ green and red  
blood and burning  
 _burning_ , _the scent of coal and copper_ , _the WHITE HOT AGONY  
_ he never made a sound  
because the scream was shocked out of him  
 _it was  
_ “Have  
 _as if it had never  
_         I  
 _he couldn’t breathe  
_            offended  
 _please  
_                           the  
 _please God no  
_                                 gods?”  
 _No, your majesty_

 


	10. Despair

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Timeline: Gen's return to Eddis
> 
> TW: suicidal ideation

I

his hand hurt  
the whole ride home  
which was strange  
considering

II

on the bright side  
if he went blind  
he wouldn’t have to  
look at his arm anymore

III

he had no visitors  
outside of his father  
and the doctor  
and his queen  
which suited him just fine  
libraries were supposed  
to be quiet things

IV

he grew familiar  
to the taste of lethium  
he stockpiled it  
for a while  
took only a part  
of what the doctor  
left and saved the rest  
in a jar on his desk  
he poured it all into  
a glass and topped  
it off with wine  
but the taste  
even so familiar  
was too bitter for him  
to swallow more  
than a mouthful  
he slept so well that night  
but dumped the rest  
of the cup out the  
window the next  
groggy morning

V

wine was a  
promising  
substitute  
but he couldn’t  
stomach drink  
after the nausea  
of drunkenness  
set in

VI

more than anything  
more than the phantom  
aches and the bad  
dreams and the  
sight of his handless arm  
he hated people  
staring at him

VII

they kept staring


	11. Deity III

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Timeline: After the Chop, before Gen finds out they're at war.

The hooks were the last straw  
                                but not the worst things that would come out of the day  
                He did not come to the temple to pray  
                                                but somehow found himself praying  
 

It was almost funny how a few years of habit could not  
erase themselves because he suddenly knew the gods  
were the fickle things many believed and not his allies.  
 

                                                                He had every right to _whine.  
_ They had betrayed _him,_ he had not betrayed _them.  
_                 He had every _right_ to grieve over his—loss.  
He was _nothing_ now.  
The gods who had sought to use him, had made so many careful plans  
had turned him into a broken hammer,  
a shattered wrench,  
a tool battered beyond repair  
                                _and their message for him is stop whining._  
 

It could only mean one thing.  
They weren’t finished with him yet.


	12. Comeback

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Timeline: Gen stops whining
> 
> look i know this is a vastly different tone and style from the rest of them but hear me out--i'm a slut for syllable work and 8/6/8/6 is one of my faves but doesn't souND RIGHT if it doesn't rhyme at least a little and the vast tonal difference is a nice segue away from depressing gen into awesome gen anyway and i just wanted to play with sounds okay sue me (pls dont sue me i have no moneys)

The Magus in the megaron  
did not suspect a thing.  
The Thief of Eddis lay in bed,  
he would not stir this spring.  
Sounis and Eddis danced about  
in politics and heart,  
And paranoid Attolia  
would soon be torn apart  
by Medes without her kingdom if  
not by the lords within;  
and if by chance she weathered both,  
then Sounis would descend.  
All was well within the land  
despite the distant war.  
The Magus’ king would conquer all  
and drive Medes from their shore.  
It’d mean the end of Eddis  
and Attolia as well,  
and he’d regret that all his years,  
but maybe— _what the hell?_

A tapping at his window drew  
the Magus out of bed—  
the Thief of Eddis, smirking as  
the world turned on its head.  
_Steal time,_ his queen had asked of him,  
and this was his reply:  
no desperate choices can be made  
when threatening measures die.  
There’d be no more discussion of  
what country had to fall  
to protect the peninsula  
if he’d a say at all.  
With Sounis’ navy up in smoke  
The Magus had no choice  
but to return to Eddis if  
he meant to keep his voice.  
The war would be two-sided from  
this point until the end.  
Sounis could not keep up the fight  
and not his lords offend. 

The Magus, exiled, grudgingly  
admits it was well-planned—  
the Thief of Eddis, back at work  
_and with only one hand._


	13. Denial I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Timeline: During the war, after Gen started being useful again

_I should have  
hanged him when I had  
the chance._

_He is more dangerous  
with one hand than  
an army._

_When I see him  
again, and I will see  
him again, I will   
send him to the   
afterlife, blind. _

_I will personally  
cut off his ears, cut  
out his tongue. _

_I will cut off his  
other hand before   
I let him close  
to me once more. _

_What can you steal  
with one hand, Eugenides?  
What can you steal   
that you haven't  
already taken?_

_I  
I should have  
If he returns to Attolia,  
he will be buried here._


	14. Denial II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Timeline: Same as last chapter

_I can  
do anything I want  
go anywhere I want  
be anything I want  
and I will not  
must not  
cannot be  
in love  
with   
her. _


	15. Kindness II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Timeline: Same as last chapter

He had smiled at her.  
What she remembered of that  
(terrible, horrific, nightmarish)  
day  
was he Had smiled at her,  
a real smile.  
Not the smirk she saw in  
the earrings left by her bed  
the mocking grin of the  
things moved about  
(he was _gloating_ , the _monster_ )  
but a smile she had never seen  
and never expected.

And she  
she had struck him for it  
for his cheek.  
And then she'd struck  
his hand from him.

If his queen was more kind  
than she had her most  
gracious in his presence…

What must he think  
of her now?  
that thief,  
that _damnable_ thief.

_ (if she had hanged him  
He would not haunt her so) _


	16. Chapter 16

She was as beautiful as he remembered,  
and just as he remembered,  
did not look as unhinged as  
his cousin who is Eddis believed.  
He only saw her once in his  
time there, too afraid to stay closer   
than necessary. But he  
saw her.

He looked on her,  
and he was not afraid.  
Of course he was terrified to look,   
terrified at what he would see,  
( _what he wouldn't see_ )  
but once he did, he felt

_ sad.  _

The Mede was beside her  
but it was... _different_.  
The look she gave him  
was not the look he'd   
expected to see. 

He _knew_ her.  
They were more alike than  
he cared to consider, and  
he knew himself.

And at once  
he knew what  
he had to do. 


End file.
